[#-3]

I think I somewhat agree with Mr Coffee line of thought, without agreeing with his anger about it.

I think it is well agreed even among teachers that they are relatively fairly compensated financially for the type of work they do.

It's been posted in this thread, teachers have 900 hours of classroom time and 300 hours of non classroom time on their schedule. A typical and comparable job is going to have 1650 -1900 hours depending on vacation time offered.

With their 190-200 working days annually, they would need to work 2-4 additional hours every single working day to have the equivalent of a full time job, I am certain that many if not most teachers do put in 3 or 4 hours of extra perp / marking work on a regular basis, but knowing the teachers I know I find it very hard to believe they are doing that 5 days / week. So the constant comments about how much extra time do ring pretty hallow, and the seeming lack of understanding that any white-collar job in the $90K+ range is going to demand that you are basically always on call for phone/email during your waking hours.

I'm not really angry about it as Mr Coffee seems to be, I understand they have the contract they have, they are generally fairly compensated, and like any strong union they are going to drive a hard bargain at negotiations, I just don't think the demanding work schedule is a fruitful argument with most people who face equal or larger challenges in their work schedules.

In many ways it reminds me of the constant drum beat about safety you hear during police negotiation, when I doubt their jobs would make the top 20 for the personal dangers scale, and they are more highly paid that basically every job above them on that list. It ends up ringing hallow to a segment of society with experience around dangerous jobs, and the police don't understand why. Part of a public sector negotiation is the publicity campaign and sometimes there is a disconnect between what the union members find to be a fruitful argument and what the general public interprets regarding their jobs. I think the "extra" hours is generally this area with teachers, as most of the public would back the side that is for staffing, infrastructure and supply improvements most of the time, but to parents specifically it feels like teachers have clawed back every inch possible in terms of hours worked.